Stephen Hawking - soon to be DEAD. DEAD. DEAD?

Stephen Hawking - soon to be DEAD. DEAD. DEAD?

(CNN) -- Scientist and author Stephen Hawking is "very ill" and has been hospitalized, according to Cambridge University, where
he is a professor.

Hawking, 67, is one of the world's most famous physicists and also a cosmologist, astronomer, and mathematician.

Wheelchair-bound Hawking is perhaps most famous for 'A Brief History of Time.'

Hawking has Lou Gehrig's Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS), which is usually fatal after three years. Hawking has survived for more than
40 years since his diagnosis.

A Cambridge University spokesman told CNN: "Professor Hawking is very ill and has been taken by ambulance to Addenbrookes Hospital in
Cambridge."

Professor Peter Haynes, head of the university's department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: "Professor
Hawking is a remarkable colleague, we all hope he will be amongst us again soon."

It's amazing he's lived as long as he has... ALS patients usually succomb fairly quickly. He's lived with this for what, 40 years or so? I knew a
guy who was diagnosed with ALS at age 32. Prior to getting sick, he was a big, strong healthy mountain clmiber type. He was dead within 18 months.